If you’re going to make a Universal Monsters movie, why not get a director Deadline, that’s exactly what’s about to happen.
Leigh Whannell, director of this year’s horror hit The Invisible Man, is in talks to direct a new Wolfman movie that has Ryan Gosling attached to star. The co-creator of Insidious and Saw will write a treatment of the script, which will then be handled by Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo, as previously reported.
The company behind Invisible Man, Blumhouse, is also on board to produce, and president Jason Blum confirmed the news on Twitter, announcing “Buckle Up” along with a link to the story.
“I’m very interested in the early Hollywood years of horror films. I’m very interested in Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi,” Whannell told Gizmodo earlier this year when talking about Invisible Man. At the time, it was clear what he liked most about that film was the opportunity to take an iconic, recognisable property and reimagine it for 2020. The idea behind the Wolfman movie is apparently similar. Early reports say Gosling will play a news anchor who gets infected, with an overall vibe evoking movies like Network and Nightcrawler. Whether or not that’s what Whannell is working with is unclear.
However, while it’s obvious that with each new project Whannell gets better and better as a filmmaker, there’s also that “shrug” feeling of a film studio once again going with a tried and true white male director instead of a woman or person of colour. Blum himself has been wrapped up in some controversy about this very issue.
That said, The Invisible Man was excellent, Gosling is too, and it feels like this new iteration of the Universal Monsters brand could be taking another big step.